FEE INCREASES STIR WAVE OF ACTIVISM ON STATE CAMPUSES

A year ago, student activists at the UC campus here and universities throughout the state were rallying classmates to oppose, or in some cases support, American intervention in the Gulf War. Now, as the nation looks more at domestic problems, student protests are focusing on issues as close as their wallets and lecture halls.

With hunger strikes, rallies and lobbying, students in California’s two public university systems are decrying large fee increases and program cuts they say are forcing them to shoulder an unfair burden of the recessionary budget crisis. Many have hope that the current discontent over fees will revive the student political movement that briefly blossomed for this generation during the Gulf War.

“The Sixties started out like this,” said UC Berkeley sophomore Margaret Fortune, one of five UC Berkeley students who fasted for five days last week to protest the 24%, or $550, rise in fees that goes into effect next fall. “What began as five hunger strikers may move on to something more sizable.”

Since fee hikes were approved by both systems in January, a rash of demonstrations has erupted statewide. The protests have involved a relatively small percentage of students, but still have taken some campuses by surprise.

At UC Davis, 300 students stormed a campus meeting hall and five were arrested after the regents voted there to approve the higher fees. At UC Berkeley, 64 students were arrested during a sit-in last week--the largest number of campus arrests since anti-apartheid protests in 1986--and a new group of five students has taken up the liquids-only fast. At Cal State Long Beach, four students are near the end of a 10-day hunger strike over a 40%, or $372, fee hike for next year that must still be approved by the Legislature.

Other protest rallies have been held or are being planned at UC campuses in Irvine, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, San Diego and Santa Barbara and at Cal State campuses in San Francisco and Humboldt. There is also talk of one-day class boycotts in both university systems and massive lobbying visits to Sacramento.

“It’s pretty unlikely the regents will change their mind. But we have to think of the next generation. We have to show the Legislature and the regents that students do have a voice and will stand up. So maybe the regents will think twice the next time,” said Yumi Hosaka, a senior and a UC Berkeley student government official who was still attending classes in the third day of her planned five-day fast on Wednesday.

The fasts are meant to symbolize that rising fees force some students to “choose between going to school and eating,” according to UC Berkeley senior John Perez, who helped organize the protest. He insists that is not hyperbole, although administrators say all needy students will receive extra financial aid.

The depth of campus support for such protests is debatable.

At 32,000-student Cal State Long Beach, a noontime rally on campus Wednesday against the proposed fee increase attracted about 300 students, faculty and staff, a turnout that pleased student leaders accustomed to apathy. “I think the issue itself is different from many other controversial issues because it goes right to the pocketbooks of students,” said Alicia Nevarez, who was feeling weak after seven days of a planned 10-day fast.

At UC Berkeley, many students seem resigned to higher fees and some say they prefer the hike to widespread cuts in classes or faculty layoffs.

For example, sophomore Steve Yao said the era of intense student activism long is finished at Berkeley, despite some nostalgia for it. “People are more worried about themselves in terms of getting classes and their own futures,” he said at Sproul Plaza, birthplace of the Free Speech Movement in the Sixties.

That Berkeley plaza was the scene this week of diverse activities, such as a celebration of Chinese New Year, an Islamic preacher praising the Koran, a musician playing jazz vibes and a host of students preparing their forms to add or drop classes. Clearly, this was not a campus under siege.

On the other hand, Nathan Newman, a sociology graduate student who was among those cited for trespassing during the sit-in at a Berkeley library last week, insists that the fee protests are drawing more participants than other recent issues did, including the Gulf War.

Official reactions to the protests have varied.

Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), chairman of the Assembly Higher Education Committee and controversial veteran of ‘60s anti-war protests, sent a message of support to the Berkeley hunger.

Less conciliatory was UC Regent Glenn Campbell. “It’s their right as free Americans to go on a hunger strike if they want to. It’s my right as a free American not to pay attention to them,” Campbell stated, saying higher fees were the only way to protect UC’s quality and avoid enrollment cuts.

Officials at both UC and Cal State stress that about a quarter of the new fee revenues would go to increased financial aid and that both UC and Cal State fees will remain about average or below those of similar schools nationwide. Excluding room, board and health plans, basic in-state fees for UC undergraduates next year will be $2,824, up 91% since 1990. But with living expenses added, a UC education will cost about $11,000 a year, making it one of the most expensive in the country, student leaders contend.

Cal State has proposed that undergraduates who are state residents pay $1,308 per year in 1992-93, not including room and board; the 40% increase would follow a 20% hike this year.

The real battle will take place in the Legislature, particularly over the Cal State increase. UC regents have autonomy over fees but fear lawmakers may find other ways to attack the system’s budget.